Marked for Peter Holič
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Slovacko's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Slovacko has to find a result from somewhere.
Market7 Dec 2026
Peter Holič hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slovacko can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Slovacko
Marek Havlík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alan Marinelli commits to Slovacko for another 4 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Slovacko
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Trávník was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑2 to Bohemians 1905, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Milan Heča gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Filip Brabec to a room that had heard them before.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Slovacko
Marek Havlík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Milan Rundić, and the manager let it.
Match9 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Slovacko
Position 9, 19 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Filip Brabec to a room that had heard them before.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Slovacko, another week without a signature from Filip Vaško.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Milan Heča shuts the door again
7 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from Milan Heča
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Marek Havlík was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Slovacko and Sparta Prague, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Slovacko
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Trávník was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Milan Heča gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Peter Holič asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Oct 2026
Alan Marinelli has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slovacko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Slovacko
Marek Havlík and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jakub Hastík is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
Pribram made Slovacko work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Filip Brabec, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Peter Holič knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Peter Holič trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match10 Oct 2026
Jihlava will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slovacko were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market12 Oct 2026
Peter Holič hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slovacko can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.62, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Slovacko — 7.87
1 for Michal Trávník, marked 7.87, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Slovacko
Marek Havlík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A goal and an assist for Artūr Dolžnikov — 7.83
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.83 beside his name.
Match10 Oct 2026
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Slovacko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Trávník is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.